Definition of "apotheosis" []

• Exaltation to divine rank or stature; deification. (noun)
• Elevation to a preeminent or transcendent position; glorification: "Many observers have tried to attribute Warhol's current apotheosis to the subversive power of artistic vision” ( Michiko Kakutani). (noun)
• An exalted or glorified example: Their leader was the apotheosis of courage. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Blagojevich is regularly described as the apotheosis of the shady Illinois politician -- a genus that rivals the Louisiana and Jersey City variety for chicanery."
• "In the classic world, the word apotheosis was given to the ceremony that conferred the condition of gods upon a nation's heroes."
• "But we speak now separately of human testimony, according to which — that which the Grecians call apotheosis, and the Latins relatio inter divos — was the supreme honour which man could attribute unto man, specially when it was given, not by a formal decree or act of state (as it was used among the Roman Emperors), but by an inward assent and belief."